the power of the simple

St Jerome talks to us about the simplicity of the Bible today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says not to be fooled by it. And it's a good and important point, because our limited human minds tend to distrust things that we find simple.

But the Bible is simple because God is simple. That might be difficult to grasp, because His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. That makes Him sound complicated, right?

Even the simplicity of God is a difficult thing to understand completely. Here is a link that talks about God's simplicity and how it's been discussed throughout history. If you want to read something that will blow your mind about God, read this. That article describes God's simplicity, but also the fact that we don't really know what God is. We don't even know what we mean when we use the word "God". All of this wisdom comes from the brilliant mind of Thomas Aquinas.

So what does this mean for our lives? If God and the Bible are so simple, why are they so hard to comprehend? Shouldn't they be EASY to understand if they're simple? The answer is yes and no. God gives us the simplest directions in the world... that just happen to be the hardest things to do. "Take up your cross daily and follow Me" is excruciatingly hard. "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" is also true, however. "Don't worry about tomorrow. Trust God to take care of you," is very simple and profound. It's simultaneously easy and impossible. "Love God, and love other people" is about the simplest command you could receive... but it will take you your entire life to learn to do it.

God has given us, in His Bible, the simplest stories and most straightforward commands in the world. And we can spend our entire lives unraveling what they mean, and never begin to scratch the surface of the depths of wisdom that are found in each one. It's the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search them out.

Let's spend our lives searching. Because we'll find Him in each story.

God, thank You for being at the same time simple and profound.